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International Debt Report 2025
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2025-12-03
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2025-12-03
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World Bank
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Abstract
For more than five decades, the World Bank’s premier annual publication on debt, now titled the International Debt Report (IDR), along with the associated International Debt Statistics (IDS) database, has helped shape policies in development finance by sharing timely and comprehensive external debt data and analysis with the international community. Drawing on data collected through the World Bank’s Debtor Reporting System, this publication has kept pace with evolving borrowing patterns and new lending instruments, measured the impact of initiatives to relieve debt burdens, and promoted best practices in debt recording and reporting.

Each year the report presents an analysis of evolving trends in external debt stocks and flows of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), as well as issues and challenges for development finance. The IDS database provides comprehensive information on external debt stocks and flows of public and private borrowers in LMICs (by borrower and creditor), the terms on which external loans are contracted, current and future debt service, and debt indicators in relation to key economic variables.

IDR 2025 encompasses: (1) Analysis of external debt stocks and flows for 2014–24; (2) Debt dynamics: policy implications and outlook; (3) Update on the debt transparency agenda; and (4) One-page summaries per country, plus global, regional, and income-group aggregates showing debt stocks and flows, relevant debt indicators, and metadata for 6 years (2010 and 2020–24).

For more information on International Debt Report 2025 and related products, please visit the World Bank’s Debt Statistics website at www.worldbank.org/debtstatistics.
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World Bank. 2025. International Debt Report 2025. Washington,
DC: World Bank. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-2262-9. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO
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International Debt Report 2022
Washington, DC : World Bank
2022
World Bank
International Debt Report (IDR), formerly International Debt Statistics (IDS), is a longstanding annual publication of the World Bank featuring external debt statistics and analysis for the 121 low- and middle-income countries that report to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System (DRS). The content coverage of IDR 2022 includes: 1) analyses of external debt stock and flows from 2010 to 2021 for these countries, 2) an assessment of the evolution of the creditor composition of external debt over the past decade with particular emphasis on the emergence of non-traditional bilateral creditors and private creditors and how this has impacted the structure of borrowers’ public debt portfolios and debt servicing costs which complicate the debt restructuring process, 3) a focus on how the World Bank has sought to enhance data quality and transparency against the backdrop of rapidly changing global debt dynamics (increase in commercial borrowing, non-traditional lenders, new instruments, etc.) that contribute to debt transparency issues, 4) tables and charts detailing debtor and creditor composition of debt stock and flows, terms volume and terms of new commitments, maturity structure of future debt service payments and debt burdens, measured in relation to GNI and export earnings for each country, and 5) a one-page summary on each country, plus global, regional and income-group aggregates showing debt stocks and flows, relevant debt indicators and metadata for 6 years (2010 and 2017-2021).
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Washington, DC: World Bank
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World Bank
The International Debt Report (IDR) is a longstanding annual publication of the World Bank featuring external debt statistics and analysis for the 122 countries that report to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System. IDR 2023 is the 50th annual edition and includes (1) analyses of external debt stocks and flows as of end-2022 for these countries; (2) the macroeconomic and debt outlook for 2023 and beyond; (3) a focus on improved public debt transparency and the quality of debt reporting; (4) a discussion of the need for innovative approaches to debt management; (5) a commentary on how the International Debt Statistics database serves as an indispensable resource for researchers and policy makers; and (6) a one-page snapshot of relevant debt indicators and summary of debt stocks and flows for six years (2010 and 2018–22) for each country, plus global income group and regional aggregates.

Unique in its coverage of the important trends and issues fundamental to the financing of low- and middle-income countries, IDR 2023 is an indispensable resource for governments, economists, investors, financial consultants, academics, bankers, and the entire development community. For more information on IDR 2023 and related products, please visit the World Bank’s Debt Statistics website at www.worldbank.org/debtstatistics .
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For more than five decades, the World Bank’s premier annual publication on debt, now titled the International Debt Report (IDR), along with the associated International Debt Statistics (IDS) database, have helped shape policies in development finance by sharing timely and comprehensive external debt data and analysis with the international community. Drawing on data collected through the World Bank’s Debtor Reporting System, this publication has kept pace with evolving borrowing patterns and new lending instruments, measured the impact of initiatives to relieve debt burdens, and promoted best practices in debt recording and reporting.

Each year the report presents timely analysis of evolving trends in external debt stocks and flows of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), as well as issues and challenges for development finance. The IDS database provides comprehensive information on external debt stocks and flows of public and private borrowers in LMICs by borrower and creditor, the terms on which external loans are contracted, current and future debt service, and debt indicators in relation to key economic variables.

IDR 2024 encompasses: (1) a two-page foreword signed by the World Bank’s chief economist; (2) key takeaways from the report; (3) analysis of external debt stocks and flows for 2013–2023; (4) the macroeconomic and debt outlook for 2024 and beyond; (5) the debt transparency agenda: moving it forward; and (6) one-page summaries per country, plus global, regional and income-group aggregates showing debt stocks and flows, relevant debt indicators and metadata for 5 years (2019–2023). For more information on IDR 2024 and related products, please visit the World Bank’s Debt Statistics website at www.worldbank.org/debtstatistics.
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Opening Remarks by World Bank Group President David Malpass during the Launch of the International Debt Report 2022
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Malpass, David
These opening remarks were delivered
by World Bank Group President David Malpass during the
Launch of the International Debt Report 2022 on December 6,
2022. He spoke about the World Bank identified the
stagflation risk early in that year which brings three
risks: a global recession in 2023; a multi-year period of
slow growth; and widespread asset repricing as higher
interest rates are applied, and hedges run out. He mentioned
that the interest rates were very low for a long period
allowing a huge use of capital by fully-funded governments
and business sectors, and this misallocation of global
capital undercuts growth and productivity and will take time
to repair. He spoke about energy prices that are a major
factor, with shortages of fertilizer and food hitting people
in the poorest countries particularly hard. He highlighted
on the combination of extremely high government debt levels
and rising interest rates will cause heavy absorption of
global capital by advanced governments for a prolonged
period. He said that the World Bank’s latest debt statistics
report released that day makes it clear that a debt crisis
in the world’s poorest countries is intensifying. He
mentioned that to address the increase in debt and the new
composition, he has focused on improvements in three areas -
debt sustainability, transparency, and restructuring. He
spoke on debt restructuring, where new mechanisms are needed
to reflect the new creditor landscape. He concluded by
saying that together with the Kristalina Georgieva from the
IMF, they will engage with Chinese authorities and with
their policy banks – the China ExIm Bank and the China
Development Bank on the need for faster progress on
resolving unsustainable debt and the need for more transparency.
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